Bar T Bar - March 2012

SEEDSTOCK PLUS Southwest Feed Efficiency BULL SALE The Direct Approach to Efficiency— Cattle that can perform well and simply eat less to do it! The Direct Eﬀect— A working ranch could run 10% more cows and calves on the same resource, IF Negative RFI is used as a selection tool over time.

APRIL 1 4, 2012 11:00 AM at the SNYDER SALE FACILITY YERINGTON, NEVADA

400 BULLS SELL

 130 Straight Away Calving-ease Bulls - Top 25% for Calving-ease Direct and Birth WT

Though our quest for the ‘perfect’ genetics will never be ﬁnished, we’re proud of what our genetics achieve in our own commercial cowherd:

 100 Angus Bulls - Sired by: Final Answer, Mytty In Focus, Objective, Sydgen Man Date, and Credence

 Breed-up for both cows and heifers is routinely 90-95%

 40 Southern Balancers (Heat Tolerant Hybrids) Balancers with a touch of ear.  200 Balancer Bulls also sired by: EGL Tenderloin, CTR Goodnight 715T, Red Mr Fortune 4049 (Top negative RFI Sire last year), Black Cross 3002, and SCC Just Right.

AMGVI115408 Negative RFI Balancer Sire

 40 Gelbvieh Bulls sired by: Carolina Fortune, Red Mr Fortune 4049, OZZ Governor, Trendsetter 55R, and Backtrack 801U

PAP TESTING AVAILABLE if Bulls are selected by April 7th. FREE DELIVERY to central locations by May 5th. BUY BULLS WITH CONFIDENCE for Fall Delivery. A conference call will be available to those who want to purchase over the phone — see details inside the catalog. Supplement sale data and videos available online by April 1st. FINDING THE BALANCE

BAR T BAR RANCHES

Bob and Judy Prosser P.O. Box 190 Winslow, AZ 86047 928-289-2619 E-Mail: info@bartbar.com

Balance Always Bar T Bar Ranch began with commercial cow herds in 1924; we still have commercial cow herds. In 1950, though, Bar T Bar Ranch also entered the Seedstock Business in a quest to create the genetics we couldn’t ﬁnd, genetics that could build bulls and cows capable of not only surviving in our harsh, arid, big country, but cattle that could thrive here.

 30 Red Angus Bulls sired by: HXC Jack Hammer, HXC Conquest, Schuler Flatiron

LAZY TV WATCHMAN W021 -

Commercial First…

John Burbank, CEO 877-486-1160 Cell: 660-734-1165 www.seedstockplus.com

DVAuction Broadcasting Real-time Auctions

Bar LR Angus  Diamond K Angus  DA Angus  McAllen Ranches  Quarter Circle H Angus Redland Red Angus & Gelbvieh  Sandy Knoll Gelbvieh  South Texas Gelbvieh

 95% of ﬁrst-calf heifers bring a calf to branding

 Make Money at Home —Money we don’t have to spend is money in our pocket, and it’s more reliable than depending on selling calves for more dollars per hundredweight every year. Since the 1980’s we have employed carefully managed maternal heterosis and the complimentary strengths of Gelbvieh and Angus to increase fertility, production and cow longevity. Now, we’re measuring and selecting for feed eﬃciency through Residual Feed Intake.

 Sell to the Widest Market —Our calves grow, yield and marble. Though a high percentage of them qualify for premium, added-value programs, our goal is to create genetics that can build calves that have the most value to the most buyers, be they stockers, cattle feeders or packers, whether or not the cow calf operation maintains ownership in the calves beyond weaning.

 95% of mature cows bring a calf to branding  90% of first-calf heifers remain in the same calving season  95% of the mature cows remain in the same calving season. Of those that aren’t aged out, about 5% fail each year, whether it was at breed-up, an injury, etc.) Our registered cows are our commercial cows. If a female in our seedstock herd fails to breed up in 45 days, she is moved permanently to the commercial herd. Once in the commercial herd, if a female fails to breed within 90 days, we get rid of her. If a cow fails to bring a calf to weaning, we get rid of her. Our philosophy is that if you keep cows who fail, they will have daughters that fail, too. Keep in mind, other than running our seedstock cows in smaller pastures for 14 days of artificial breeding, both seedstock and commercial cows are managed exactly the same—native range with mineral, and access to protein supplement during the last trimester of gestation. For us, a heifer’s ability to breed back as a wet 2-year-old is the single most important economic benchmark of herd productivity. We worked extensively with Colorado State University to develop an Expected Progeny Difference for stayability at 3 years of age that we used as a tool to identify and cull genetics lacking in that ability. Another measure of the productive reliability of the genetics in our cowherd comes with the fact that 71 of our cows are classified as Dams of Merit or Dams of Distinction by the American Gelbvieh Association (AGA). Only 5.8% of the eligible cows registered with AGA qualify for these designations. They can be no older than 25 months of age when they have their first calf and must have had their third calf by the time they are 4 years old, maintaining a calving interval of no more than 365 days thereafter. FINDING THE BALANCE

We’re proud to say that compared to the other top-10 producers of Dams of Merit and Dams of Distinction combined, 30% more eligible cows at Bar T Bar Ranch received these designations. And we do it with a stocking rate of 4 head per section and less than 12” per year average rainfall.

BAR T BAR RANCHES

Balance is Profit Potential

Given the genetic improvement in breeds during the last three decades, it’s startling to learn how little progress has been made in commercial pastures. Based on Southwest Standardized Performance Analysis data, Stan Bevers, extension agricultural economist with Texas AgrLife Extension points out three key measures of cow productivity are static to declining. He compared data from 1991-1999 to 2005-2009. Average calving rate declined 1.3%, average weaning weight declined 36 lbs., the average pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed declined by 25 lbs. We believe one of the reasons for this is that, without realizing it, many producers modify their environment to maintain their cows, rather than letting the environment dictate what is demanded of the cows. At Bar T Bar, Mother Nature tells us which cows to keep and cull, which genetics are capable of thriving with the least resources.

Balanced Selection

Industry competitiveness and operational sustainability demand increased cost efficiency. That’s why we have embraced measuring feed efficiency through Residual Feed Intake (RFI) and using it as part of balanced selection. Ultimately, scientists and researchers may decide to Cows sired by Bar T Bar Bulls. Birkemeyer and Teskey, Mayer, AZ use a different measure; for now though, we believe RFI is the most useful tool for selecting cattle that perform the same with less feed or produce more with the same amount of feed. With RFI we can select for increased efficiency independent of gain, meaning that we can increase efficiency without also increasing mature cow size.

Balanced Breeding In simple terms, our ongoing goal at Bar T Bar Ranch is to maintain high inherent fertility in the herd, while building calves with superior growth through yearling age that also have the muscle to yield and the marbling to grade Choice. Balancer cow and calf, Cienega Ranch, Wilcox, AZ

That’s why we implemented maternal heterosis in our herd three decades

ago. It’s why we manage maternal heterosis so meticulously today. Since implementing and managing maternal heterosis in our commercial herd, we’ve increased pounds of calf weaned per cow exposed by 150 lbs. without increasing inputs. The power of maternal heterosis is why we work so hard to create outcross genetics so our customers can continue to optimize heterosis in their herds, with as much convenience as straight-breeding if they employ the use of Balancer bulls in the SmartCross breeding program.

Balanced Marketing If you never feed cattle, you can kid yourself into thinking the market should want what you have to oﬀer. Since the 1980’s Bar T Bar Ranch has collected feedlot and carcass data on the pens of our cattle that we feed.

Our commitment to our natural resources is why we joined forces with Flying M Ranch to establish the Diablo Trust in 1993. It is a collaborative process by which the public and private ranchers can develop and implement ways to help protect open spaces and healthy habitats. We are proud that BEEF Magazine recognized us and Diablo Trust as its Trail Blazer Award winner in 2011. Our commitment to the industry is also why we seem to spend more of our time in volunteer leadership positions at the local, state and national level. We believe in the future of the cattle business and beef industry. We understand that’s it’s up to each one of us as cattlemen and cattle women to take a stand for our future.

We don’t think our cattle work in the stocker pasture, the feedlot and the packing house; we know they do.

“Balancer bulls from Bar T Bar Ranch help our bottom line. Last year we had a 90% breed back with 100% yearling Balancer bulls. We have had some of the driest weather on record and were quite happy. We also weaned calves during this dry period that were 52 pounds heavier than in the history of the ranch. Eighty percent of our cows were bred during the ﬁrst heat cycle. Bar T Bar yearling bulls simply get the job done.”—Duane Coleman, Hopi 3 Canyon Ranch, Winslow, AZ

Bob & Judy Prosser on the cover of BEEF© magazine.

“I’ve had really good luck with the fertility, mothering ability and the weaning weight of the calves… The bulls come to us in what I think is perfect condition. They’ve grown the bulls well, but they’re not fat. Plus, they turn the bulls out onto some rocky country so their feet are in good shape. They’re ready to do the job when they get here.”—Ray Guymon, Guymon Ranch, Huntington, UT.

“The females we’ve kept back have bred up well, have good maternal traits and outstanding udders. We’re getting bigger weaning weights out of them, too, averaging right at 600 lbs. on the steers.”—Danny Major, Major Cattle Co.. LLC, Prescott, AZ and Perkins Ranch, Inc., Chino Valley, AZ.

We don’t think our cattle qualify for a wide variety of premium, added-value beef programs, we know they do.

Balance is Sustainability Like you, Bar T Bar Ranch has always been committed to increasing the vitality of the forage resources we’re blessed to care for. For perspective, the Bar T Bar is comprised of two ranches encompassing 630 square miles.

Testimonials:

“Bar T Bar has done a tremendous job of developing genetics that work with limited feed resources…The number one thing heterosis does for us is that it increases cow stayablity.”—Ray Rodriguez, Agro-Tech, Tucson, AZ Photo by Matt Macfarlane©